The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1887-07-18

y
at the burial of my mother. After sixty
years living together it was hard to part.
And there are aged people to-day who are
feeling just such pang as that. l want TO
tell them there is peaceful enchantment in
the promises of this Gospel; and l come to
them and offer them my arm, or / take
their arm and | bring them to this
Gospel well. Sit down, father or mother,
sit down. Sec if there is anything at the
well for you. Come, David, the Psalm
iSt, have you anything encouraging
to offer them? Yes" says the
psalmist: "They shall still bring forth fruit
in old age, they shall be fat and flourishing,
to show that the Lord is upright. He is
my rock, and there is no unrighteousness in
me-" Come, Isaiah, have you anything to
say out of your prophesies for these aged
people! "Yes, says Isaiah, Down to old
age / am with thee, and to hoary hairs will
l carry thee" Well, if the Lord is going to
carry you, you ought not to worry much
about your failing eyesight and failing
limbs You get little worried for fear
sometime you will come to want, do youl
Your children and grandchildren sometimes
speak a little sharp at you because of your
ailments. The Lord will not speak sharp.
Do you think you will come to wantl Who
do you think the Lord isl Are His gran
aries emptyt VIII He feed the raven, and
the rabbit, and the lion in
the desert, and forget youi Why
naturalists tell us that the pOrpoise will
not forsake its wounded and sick mate And
do you suppose the Lord of Heaven and
earth has not rs much sympathy as the fish
of the seai But you say 81 am so near
worn out, and am of no use to God any
more" | think the Lord knows whether
you are of any more use or not; If you
were of no more use He would have taken
you before this. Do you think God has for
AL -
you for seventy or eighty yearsi He thinks
more of you to-day than He ever did, be-
cause you think more of Him. May the
God of Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob,
and Paul the Aged be your God forever.
But gather all the promises to-day in a
group, and ask the shepherds to drive
their focks of lambs and sheep up to the
sparkling supply. Behold, happy is the
man whom God correcteth. y ''Though he
cause grief, yet will he have compassion" !"
MANY are the Affections of the righteous
but the Lord delivereth him out of them
all" Weeping may endure for a night,
but JOY cometh in the morning. j am de-
termined this morning that no one shall go
out of this house uncontrolled. Yonder is
timid and shrinking soul who seems to
hide away from the consultations | am utter
ing, as a child with a sore hand hides away
from the physician lest he touch the wound
too roughly, and the mother has to go and
compel the little patient to come out and see
the physician. So i come to your timid
and shrinking soul to-day, and compel
you to come out in presence of the
Divine Physician. He will not hurt
you. He has been healing wounds
for many years, and He will give you gentle
and omnipotent medicament. But people,
when they have trouble, go anywhere rather
than to God. DeQuincy took opium to get
rid of his troubles. Charles Lamb took to
punch. Theodore Hook took to something
stronger. Edwin Forrest took to theatrical
dissipation. And men have run all around
the earth, hoping in the quick transit to get
away from their misfortunes, 1t has been
dead failure. There is only one well that
can slake the thirst of an afflicted spirit,
and that is the deep and inexhaustible well
of the Gospel.
But some one says in the audience: "Not-
withstanding all you have said this morn
ing, find no alienation for my troubles. ="
Well, | am not through yet | have left
the most potent consideration for the last
am going to soothe you with the thought
of heaven. However talkative we may be,
there will come a time when the stoutest
and most emphatic interrogation will evoke
from us no answer. AS soon as we have
closed our lips for the final silence, no
power on earth can break that taciturnity.
But where, o Christian, will be your spirit.
In a scene or lnHnlte gladneSS. Inc spring
morning of heaven waving its blossoms in
the bright air. Victors fresh from battle
showing their scars The rain of earthly
sorrow struck through with the rainbow of
eternal joy. In one group God and angels
and the redeemed-Paul and Silas, Latimer
and Ridley, Isaiah and jeremiah, Payson
and John Milton, Gabriel and Michael, the
archangel Long line of chorsters reach
ing across the hills. Seas of joy dashing to
the white beach. Conquerors marching
from gate to gate. You are among them.
Oh, what a great flock of sheep God will
gather around the celestial wall. No stone
on the wells mouth, while the shepherd
waters the sheep. There Jacob will recog-
nize Rachel, the shepherdess. And stand
ing on one side of the well Of eternal rap
ture, your children; and standing on the
other side of eternal rapture, your Christian
ancestry, you will be bounded on all sides
by joy so keen and grand that no other
world has ever been permitted to experience
IT, Out Of that one deep well of heaven,
the Shepherd will dip reunion for the be-
reaved, wealth for the poor, health for the
sick rest for the weary. And then all the
flock of the Lords sheep will lie down in
the green pastures, and world without end
we will praise the Lord that on this summer
Sabbath morning we were permitted to
study the story of Jacob and Rachel, the
shepherdess at the well in Mesopotamia.